Well the last official week of summer is here and I know that many are preparing for the Labor Day weekend, with family gatherings and backyard BBQ’s and picnics! I hope that you have a good one planned as well. It is still warm in many places, and I hope that you have gotten some relief to the weather.

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A shout out to all who are attending the FGS Conference in San Antonio this weekend. And the schedule for 2015 has been uploaded and you can prepare for Early Bird Registration. Now—you know that FGS has partnered with Family Search to offer the combined FGS-ROOTSTECH event in February 2015! This will be the largest genealogy event in history!

Diversity comes to Salt Lake City! The combined FGS-ROOTSTECH event, Janis Minor Forte will be speaking, as will Bernice Alexander Bennet, and your truly, Angela Walton-Raji will be speaking at Roots Tech, and across the convention center will be Dr. Shelley Murphy will be presenting at the FGS Conference. Also Dr. Deborah Abbott will also be there speaking! So I hope that genealogy friends in the western part of the country, will also consider coming to this major genealogy event! So save your pennies, make your reservations early and I hope to see you there!

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Genealogist Sharon Battiste Gillens

Speaking of Bernice Bennett, her Blog Talk Radio show featured Sharon Battiste Gillens was her guest speaking about the amazing records to be found with Record Group 105–the records of the Freedman’s Bureau. This is a critical record set that is not yet indexed. And this is time for all of us to join the Indexing project. But last night’s show had an excellent overview of this under-utilized set of records. I am happy that she has made this an area of focus and she is one of the most well versed on the record types that can be found. So tune in to last night’s show. As we know Ms. Bennet’s show airs every Thursday evening at 9 pm EST on Blog Talk Radio.

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Essential Records and Databases for African American Genealogy

We know from genealogist and author Tony Burroughs the right steps to take to document family history. Oral history, exploring the family archives, Exploring Census from 1940 to 1870, Identifying the Slave Holder, Studying the slave holder’s history, Finding the earliest ancestor who arrived in America. We know these steps–and I also like to insert into his list—the need to find and to tell the family’s freedom story.

Beyond that—there are some records and resources that we need to know that they exist and to make sure that we look at them.Databases:
-Freedman’s Bureau (National Archives Record Group 105)
-Freedman Saving’s Bank
-Slave Narratives – Oral History Project
-US Colored Troops – Service Records (Found on Fold 3)
-National Park Service – Soldier and Sailors Database of Civil War Regiments (including US Colored Troops)

These record collections are useful. I think that I should also suggest that one learn how to manipulate the many databases out there. When keyword is allowed of course use the term “Negro” in the search. But also use the word “colored” or Black and even the two words “black man, or black woman”. When searching for enslaved people, use the word “slave”, and also use the word “slavery” which can frequently bring up additional links to explore. So remember to modify the search in as many ways as you can, which may yield additional links.

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Curtis Family Reunion

A shout out to the Curtis family of Prince George’s County Maryland! Their 46th Family reunion will unfold in Upper Marlboro Maryland this weekend! I have the honor of speaking at the reunion and look forward to being there with them!

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I am winding down after an amazing week. I started out the week with some research at the National Archives that yielded some wonderful results from Civil War pension files!

Secondly I welcomed the latest branch of my family was born! My latest niece Anna Rose, was born in Washington DC! I am still on new-baby high welcoming this beautiful baby into the family!

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Welcoming my latest niece Anna Rose into the family

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Well as I wind down things so I wish you all a great Labor Day weekend! Have a great time with friends and family this weekend, and thank you for taking time to tune in here! Next week the monthly class at the Historical Society of Baltimore County will unfold on Thursday morning at 10:00 am.

Meta

About Me

Author of "Black Indian Genealogy Research", Member of AAHGS -Afro-American Historical & Gennealogical Society, Founding member of AfriGeneas, Faculty for Samford IGHR, and MAAGI -Midwest African American Genealogy Institute, PAAC-Preservation of African American Cemeteries